Searching and searching. They told us to look for a girl sitting at a table in a restaurant. The restaurant will most likely be dark and small. Once we saw a girl, go in and buy a soda. Offer to buy her one too. Strike up a conversation. If she is free to talk, ask her to tell you her story. Ask her if she wants to leave this line of work.
Pretty simple instructions, but having never done this before, it was quite intimidating. My group of five people began searching. Wandering around dark alleys and seedy looking hostels. Thinking maybe we found something but then nothing. We finally stumbled upon one of these restaurants. But don’t think it is like something out of a movie. The girl was dressed in a simple kurta with loose linen pants. She even had a sweater on because this is their winter time here in Nepal. As soon as we entered the door, you could feel a change in the air. The woman behind the counter immediately ran to the back room. A younger man came forward looking very curious as to why we were there.
It wasn’t hard to tell this wasn’t a restaurant. The lights were off, no menus, the kitchen was up front right next to the tables, and everything was dusty as if it hadn’t been used in years. We asked the younger man for some sodas while my friend Paige went and snooped around the back room. We could see right in as there was no door so she pretended to need to use the restroom. The back room looked liked an unused living room. A couch with an older man reclining on it, stairs leading to an upstairs, and just random boxes of things lying around. Paige was able to see different rooms also that had beds in them. It was pretty obvious we had stumbled right into a brothel and were freaking everyone out by our presence.
The young man got us sodas and we began asking him questions about his life and working at this “restaurant”. He told us he was 19 and married to the woman behind the counter. Not true. He did show us pictures of his son however that conveniently did not have his “wife” in them. We tried to get the young woman to talk to us but she kept giggling and skirting away, acting as if she couldn’t understand English.
Another man came out of the back room with another girl who was also dressed in traditional dress. His English was quite good and we were able to ask him many questions. We asked how long he had worked there and what kind of business it was. He said it had been several years but he couldn’t tell us what kind of business it was. He claimed the other girl in the room was his sister. We tried to talk to her as well, but she also pretended she didn’t speak English. We knew she understood some English though because she laughed when we asked if she was married to the second man.
The older man in the back room kept coming and checking on us. Snapping his fingers at the young girls who would immediately run to his side. It was clear they feared this man and knew they must obey what he wanted. Since the girls could not/would not speak English with us, we decided to leave because the girls were the ones who were our mission.
After we left, my group and I went and prayed about what we had just seen. My heart was completely broken. We had seen these girls and knew what was going on. But we had no way to help them. No way to communicate with them.
I had never been in a brothel before. It was nothing like I could have imagined. Much simpler but still full of darkness. I am grateful that we were able to bring God’s light into that place with just our presence. And now I know those girls are there and can pray for them. I hope you will pray for them with me. God can rescue them and the hosts we work with here will continue to go into these restaurants looking for girls to be rescued.
Pray that the girls want to be rescued. Pray that the men stop coming for service so that the place will shut down. Pray that God’s light can shine in dark places.
Side note: The Race budget is very small and money is hard to come by. Every time we need wifi I have to buy a coffee and sharing my shampoo with everyone is making it not last very long. If you feel called at all to donate to just my personal fund, that would be a true blessing. Please just comment or contact me and let me know!
